A hidden letter in the room of a female soldier, who was subjected to a torrid campaign of sexual abuse by four superior male squaddies which contributed to her suicide, helped her get justice, her grieving mother believes.
Jaysley Beck, 19, was first inspired to join the army after being told by military recruiters she was just the perfect candidate due to her ‘good, strong’ and ‘positive’ attitude.
From that moment on, according to her mother Leighann McCready, she was ‘on a mission to join’, later signing up at the age of 16 and attending the Army Foundation College in Harrogate, North Yorkshire.
The male-dominated Army – and its seasoned cadre of non-commissioned officers (NCOs) – would eventually have a detrimental impact on Jaysley, with four of her superiors seeing her friendly nature as an invitation for their predatory behaviour.
A few years after enlisting, the Royal Artillery Gunner took her own life in her room at Larkhill Camp near Salisbury in Wiltshire on December 15, 2021, after being sexually assaulted by two senior officers.
An inquest into the teenager’s death concluded she had taken her own life after she made a complaint against Battery Sergeant Major Michael Webber, who had allegedly pinned her down, attempted to kiss her and placed his hand between her legs.
But it was a letter tucked away in her room and found by her heartbroken mother that helped expose – what Ms McCready described as a ‘cover-up’ – regarding the circumstances surrounding Jaysley’s death.
When the teenager committed suicide in December 2021, her grief-stricken mother pleaded to see her daughter’s accommodation – a place she hadn’t previously had the opportunity to visit when her daughter was alive.
Initially the Army had denied Ms McCready’s request to visit where her daughter had spent her final moments, boiling their reasoning down to ‘policies and procedures’, according to the mother.
Eventually the grieving parent was allowed to visit Jaysley’s final room, which was adorned with pictures of her loving family, to smell her daughter’s pillow and cuddle her final few pieces of laundry.
It was here in this utterly heartbreaking moment, where Ms McCready found an apology letter from Webber, then 39, in her daughter’s bedside cabinet – and it is her firm belief that the note helped her ensure some type of justice for Jaysley.
In an interview with The Sunday Times, the mother revealed the letter from the Battery Sergeant confessed to an incident on July 12, divulging that his ‘behaviour was absolutely unacceptable’.
At the time, the young army Gunner felt the letter from Webber, which concluded with ‘my door will always be open’ was dismissive when discussing the matter with friends and family, the Sunday Times reported.
The senior soldier was later promoted to Warrant Officer 1 (WO1) rank – the highest non-commissioned rank in the Army – in May 2022, despite the minor administrative action he received for the incident with Gnr Beck
A coroner later said the letter left Jaysley feeling a sense of ‘injustice’, and that the 19-year-old had become disillusioned by the military’s ability to deal with complaints of sexual misconduct.
Ms McCready told the publication: ‘In all honesty, I think if it wasn’t for the fact that I took the letter of apology out of my daughter’s drawer and put it in my handbag, there would have been no other evidence that it existed.
‘Because they never had it on file. They never documented it.’
Jasyley was also subjected to ‘intolerable harassment’ from Barbardier Ryan Mason, – her manager at the time – who sent thousands of WhatsApp messages to her in the months before her death.
Mason, who now works as a driver instructor declined to answer when asked if he had romantic feelings for Gunner Beck during the inquest, and didn’t respond when asked if his messages referencing concerns about suicide and his mental health put pressure on the 19-year-old.
Mr Mason broke down in tears as he told the hearing that he had suffered from mental health issues since he was a child and had self-harmed in 2015.
The court also heard how Jaysley’s father, restaurant owner Anthony Beck, 52, had urged her to ‘stay well away’ from ‘very controlling’ Barbardier Mason after remarking that ‘something is not right with him’.
In one message to Gunner Beck, on October 21, Mr Mason wrote: ‘l Love you Jayse. As a friend.’
On November 11, he wrote: ‘You’re amazing Jayse, I appreciate you so much, I love everything about you, even your flaws.’
But on November 25, Gunner Beck wrote to Mr Mason, telling him the situation was becoming a bit too much’ and ‘weighing me down’.
She added: ‘Totally honest here, I just don’t want to hear how you feel about me.’
Jaysley’s mother Ms McCready said her daughter had received 3,600 messages from Mr Mason in the month of November – and Gunner Beck had expressed fears he was watching her and might even have been tracking her phone.
She added her daughter had phoned her on December 7 when she was staying in a hotel in Newbury for work.
Gunner Beck was ‘upset and crying’ and was ‘afraid something would happen, Ms McCready said.
Her elder sister Emilli, 25, previously said Jaysley was ‘the most beautiful, caring and strongest person I know’ and that her younger sister was ‘taken advantage of by people superior to her in the Army’.
For the first couple of years of Jaysley’s army career, she vindicated her family’s faith in her and relished every minute of her new job.
Her mother recalled: ‘She did extremely well and was in constant contact with us.
‘You could tell how happy she was, how much she was thriving in the Army,’ she told BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour in 2023.
‘Absolutely there were challenges along the way. It wasn’t smooth sailing. It was a lot of hard work and dedication on Jaysley’s and her colleagues’ part, but she started off extremely well.’
It was from the second half of 2021, the teenage soldier was ‘taken advantage’ of by four male colleagues, all of them older and senior in rank to her, which eventually, combined with other factors, drove her to take her own life.
The backdrop to the tragic events also included a turbulent long-distance relationship Jaysley had with an instructor at the AFC in Harrogate, whose rank then was the Royal Artillery equivalent of Corporal.
Bombardier George Higgins, now 30, who has left the Army, was eight years Jaysley’s senior. Asked at the inquest if their relationship began while she was a trainee, he initially declined to answer, then said it began after she left Harrogate.
Higgins was a trainer at the army foundation college in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, which Beck attended from the age of 16.
The inquest heard it was an offence under the Sexual Offences Act for someone in a position of trust to have sexual activity with a person aged under 18 under their care.
He claimed he was never made aware of Army policy on sexual relations between officers or NCOs and subordinates but declined to answer when asked if he was ever pulled up by senior officers for failing to maintain boundaries with junior soldiers.
Higgins was named only as ‘Witness 5’ in the Army’s previous inquiry, which heard there were ‘repeated allegations of unfaithfulness’ on his part, and the relationship finally ended in November 2021, only weeks before Jaysley’s death.
The report also noted she was having a clandestine affair with a married Royal Artillery soldier who held a much higher rank.
That soldier has been named at the inquest as Staff Sergeant Cory Budd, 29, who socialised with Gunner Beck on the night she took her life and her mood was said to have plummeted when he left the Christmas party.
SSgt Budd told the Coroner that Jaysley had admitted to him that her father had been ‘worried’ about her.
During their affair, Gnr Beck messaged SSgt Budd telling him her father was concerned about Bdr Mason – who had written a 15-page ‘love story about his feelings’ towards the teen soldier.
The Army’s inquiry concluded that maintaining secrecy around the relationship with SSgt Budd ‘affected her state of mind and was likely to have been a contributory factor’.
The Army’s own report should have sent a clear message to top brass to crack down on male predatory behaviour in the forces, which countless other cases have proved is far more widespread than one garrison.
As the conclusion noted: ‘[Gunner Beck’s] relationships and the incidents of unacceptable behaviour to which she was subject involved four personnel from three separate units across Larkhill Garrison.
‘All four personnel were significantly older and more senior in rank than [her].
‘The incidents involving [Gunner Beck], in addition to other incidents related by other witnesses, were assessed as being indicative of a permissive environment that has enabled unacceptable behaviour to become normalised in some instances across some Larkhill Garrison units.
The report concluded: ‘Mental well-being warning signs were clearly present in the weeks before her death but these were missed.
‘Other parts of the military culture of the Armed Forces show it is still a man’s world.’
It comes after a former soldier, who was pestered for sex by a male sergeant despite being a lesbian, said nothing had changed in the Army regarding the devastating case of Jaysley.
The hearing brought back disturbing memories for Kerry Fletcher-Karg, who won £187,000 from the MoD after she highlighted how she had been pestered for sex by a male sergeant.
Ms Fletcher-Karg, 49, said the details of Jaysley’s death had left her reliving her own experience of Army sexual bullying when she served in the Royal Horse Artillery.
She told : ‘Those two soldiers who abused Jaysley should face a court martial, be jailed and lose their pensions.’
She added: ‘Jaysley was a very pretty girl and she would have come under tremendous pressure to give them what they wanted.’
Ms Fletcher-Karg, was a lance bombardier at a military stables, in North Yorkshire, when she was bullied, harrassed and stalked after refusing to sleep with her staff sergeant.
She served in Bosnia, Poland and Germany until she resigned following 10 years in the Army due to sexual harassment – and also trained at Larkhill Camp, the base at which Jaysley took her own life.
She said: ‘What poor Jaysley went through is horrendous. She was nothing but a baby and those men put her through hell.
‘I know what the Army is like. They close ranks when complaints are made. Things need to change. Young girls in the Army need more protection from predators.’
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The heartbroken mother of tragic teenager soldier Gunner Jaysley Beck has slammed the Army and demanded urgent changes to improve the reporting of sexual assaults in the military.
In an emotional tribute outside of the coroner’s court, Leighann McCready, said: ‘Jaysley was so much more than just a soldier – she was our daughter, a sister to Emilli, and a friend to so many.
‘She was kind, caring, and truly loved by everyone who knew her. She was full of life, bright, and absolutely fantastic at her job.
‘The Army itself has said she was exactly the kind of person they wanted to join. She should still be here.
‘Today, the coroner has given his findings. They are extremely critical and he found that various Army failings in the handling of her report of sexual assault and in responding to the sexual harassment she was suffering, contributed to her death.
‘The Army has admitted that it let Jaysley down and has apologised for its failings. But no apology will ever bring her back.
‘This is a message to Sir Keir Starmer and our government: things need to change. The Army cannot be allowed to investigate itself anymore – when it comes to cases of sexual harassment, assault, bullying, and abuse.
‘Too often, servicewomen and men don’t feel able to speak up out of fear of being victimised and even when they do, the Army is left to investigate itself. This cannot continue.
‘There needs to be an independent body responsible for investigating these most serious cases which is completely separate from the Army. Only then can we ensure true accountability, real justice, and genuine change.
‘The only comfort we have now is knowing that hundreds of people in the military have come forward, sharing their own experiences and seeking support. No one should have to suffer in silence. There are independent sources of help available, and we urge anyone affected to reach out. You are not alone.
‘Jaysley should still be here. We won’t stop fighting until meaningful action is taken.’